New England's Brett Favre

Brett Favre has been a great quarterback who helped the Packers win a Super Bowl. He's also friendly with the media and can be counted on to give a good quote. Curt Schilling has been a great pitcher who helped the Red Sox win the World Series. He's also friendly with the media and can be counted on to give a good quote.

Listen to the media, and neither man has done anything wrong in their lives. Favre I've already discussed, but let's look at Schilling.

After the World Series, Theo Epstein is seen at a rally for John Kerry and Schilling is seen at a rally for George Bush. Theo gets bashed and Schilling -- he's a great American that cares about his country. Coincidently the most prominent voices on Boston radio are to the right of Rush Limbaugh.

Then Schilling comes to spring training out of shape. He did have surgery on his ankle, but last I checked you can still exercise without using your ankle. Again, no criticism. Imagine if Manny comes into camp out of shape.

Then, he shows up to Congress for the Steroid hearings. After boldly saying how steroids is a big problem and how he knows tons of players are users, he basically tells Congress that he doesn't really know anything.

Then there's his rehab. I know hindsight is 20/20, but it's now obvious he did not make the right decisions in his rehab.

Now the latest is his last pitching performance in which he got shelled. No one in Boston is blaming Schilling for pitching poorly; after all it's just his first game back, so we shouldn't have expected much. Apparently it was just a rehab start.

Pitchers shouldn't be doing rehab starts in the majors late in the season during a pennant race. If Keith Foulke went straight to the bullpen after his stint on the DL and got shelled, people would be trashing him for selfishly avoiding the minors. Instead, we get to hear the Boston media speak of Schilling's selflessness by going to the bullpen instead of starting in the minors. If he did continue his rehab in the minors, he'd probably be pitching a strong 7 innings per game by now -- which is exactly what the Red Sox need.

Now if Schilling starts to pitch well again I'll be cheering with everyone else, but in the mean time he shouldn't be above criticism.